ciginstitutefandomcom-20200215-history
Creating a Family Model
I. INTRODUCTION Rev. Moon has stated that the foundation of the ideal society(CIG), is the family. “Then, where does life in the Kingdom of Heaven begin? It is the family. It does not unfold in some other place. The Kingdom of Heaven is nothing more than a three-dimensional expansion of the family; it does not exist separately from the family.” (True Families Gateway to Heaven, pg. 22) According to Rev. Moon, the “ideal” family would form the model for the “ideal” society. Every institution in the ideal would be patterned after the family. “The family is the base where each form of true love can be brought to perfection… we can see the creation of a model, centering upon true love, for the perfection of children, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, and parents. It was God’s ideal of creation that this model be expanded not just to the level of country and world but to the entire cosmos. Thus it is possible for a country to become a family-patterned unit that is larger than the family: the world can become a family-patterned unit that is larger than a country; and the cosmos can become a family-patterned unit larger than the world.” (“Peace and the 21st Century, the Fundamental Principle of True Peace”, March 27, 1994) The key question then arises—what would this family-patterned country that Rev. Moon spoke of actually be like?' ''Dr. Sang Hyun Lee, who developed Unification Thought, talked about the importance of exploring this question in a workshop he gave to leaders in the New Yorker Hotel in 1994: '“'Until now the ideal society has been described only in '''vague' terms. Now we must describe in '''''concrete detail how True Love will be expressed in the family and, with the family as the model, in the educational system, the organs of government and the institutions of society. Such clarity is an essential step in the public acceptance of Father’s vision for the future.”(UNews, July 1994) Therefore, the key to transforming society from a Unificationist perspective is to build a family model which can then be applied to every sector of the “ideal”(CIG) society. It’s very important, as Dr. Lee was saying, to make sure that this model is not only expressed in “vague” terms but can be described in more "concrete detail." One might argue, as Dr. Lee intimated in his 1994 statement, that Father’s vision for the future has not achieved widespread “public acceptance” because as a Movement we have not clearly delineated what this family model would entail and how it would be applied to all societal institutions. In addition, we must admit that we have fallen short in exemplifying a God-centered family model in our own everyday lives. Hence, the first task we would like to undertake, as part of the CIG Institute(CIGI), is to begin to create this family model. II'. '''FAMILY MODEL 'A) WHAT IS THE CIG?' The Cheon Il Guk(CIG) is God’s Kingdom on Earth. '''Therefore, this will be a place in which everything and everyone will resemble the image and character of God.' In the CIG, when we gaze at the sky we will see God, and when we look at everything in human society(institutions as well as people), we will see the image and character of the Creator(what the Bible sometimes refers to as the “face” of God). Whether it be a movie, a piece of artwork, a building, a business, a political entity etc., when we gaze upon it we will see the “face” of the Creator. What does the “face” of God look like? Traditionally God has been referred to as our “Father”. But in our Unification tradition, we believe the image of God includes the unity of both male and female. And that God consists of an internal character and external form. So to reflect the image of God we need to reflect these “dual characteristics.” The essence of God’s character is His heart of love. So to reflect God’s character is to reflect His heart. Unificationists describe God’s heart as having four “great realms” which include parental love towards children, children’s love towards parents, conjugal love between husband and wife and fraternal love between brother and sister. So to reflect the character of God one must embody the four realms of His heart of love. B) WHAT IS THE IDEAL FAMILY? Which basic institution in society can potentially reflect the fullness of God's image and character? The "ideal" family. What shape would this "ideal" family take? Rev. Moon stated the following: “If you look at a family that has fully realized the ideal of love, it has higher, middle, and lower, left and right and front and back. This is the basic rule. Thus, when we talk about higher and lower, we refer to the parents and children; when we talk about left and right we refer to the husband and wife; and when we talk about front and back, we refer to the siblings…So higher and lower, left and right, front and back and the common central point add up to the number seven. To form the number seven in this way means to be a family that is one in perfect true love with God at the center, and'' ''where all these elements form a ''complete spherical shape 'bringing harmony and unity'.”'' (True Families Gateway to Heaven)'' '' Thus, based on Rev. Moon’s words, the ideal family forms a spherical shape which might look something like the following(see adjacent picture, taken from The Family as the School of Love, IEF, pg. 6). It is a fulfillment of the four “great realms” of His heart. And it embodies the dual characteristics of His image. Every person in the ideal family would work to fulfill his/her sung sang(internal) purpose first, and then the hyung sang(external) purpose. And the unity of husband and wife would reflect the harmony of the male and female characteristics within God.' This diagram could therefore be used to represent the "family model," which would then form the theoretical basis for the CIG society.' C) WHAT IS THE IDEAL SOCIETY? Rev. Moon has said that the entire CIG society would be patterned after the "ideal" family. Therefore, if one were to make a diagrammatic representation of the entire CIG society, it might look something like the following(see adjacent picture) The "ideal" (healthy) family would be the core, and then each sector of the ideal society would be an extension of the family. As previously discussed, the ideal family would form a spherical shape, and thus all of the sectors (business, health, politics etc.) would also be spherical because they would be modeled after the ideal family. Our challenge as Unificationists is to then "flesh out" how this family model would be practically applied to each sector of the "ideal" society. In other words, we need to explain in a more concrete way how each sector in the larger society will be transformed to reflect the image and character of God(see picture below)